In general, in the display of garments, when it is wished to display a garment in a more lifelike manner, dummies are used having a human form, whether it is just the torso portion of the body to display jackets and shirts and the like, or for more extensive clothing, such as suits, dresses or coats, in which case a dummy having a complete human form, including head and extremities, is used.
A drawback to this approach to clothing display is the relative high cost of a display dummy, which is usually a casting of an actual human body, and can be provided with arms and legs which are articulated and add to the complexity of construction, and thus the cost.
Another drawback with display dummies is that they are truly lifesize, so that when stored, present a space problem since they cannot be disassembled.
In an effort to overcome some of these drawbacks, it is known in the art to display clothing on upright stands, which are little more than coat hangers supported on a vertical member and which allows the clothing to be draped, more or less, as it would be in actual use on a person, however, without much form or illusion of motion, since the clothing being displayed is suspended from a member whose shape and size cannot be changed.
Another disadvantage in this type of display stand is that for each garment being displayed, another stand must be used, making it very difficult to achieve an advantageous harmony of the clothing being displayed, since the display usually is that of a basic garment, such as a jacket, and the accessories which would go with this basic garment, such as trousers, shirts, and neckties and the like.
Still another disadvantage as a group of the displays described, is that they all require extraneous illumination, which requires careful positioning of the displays and the lights if the most advantageous appearance is to be achieved, with such extraneous distractions as wiring kept well out of sight.